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DOCUMENT: INDIGECO.TXT
A L T E R N A T I V E S T O D E V E L O P M E N T:
ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Environment Workshop -- March 30, 1979
Northwest Regional Conference on the Emerging International
Economic Order
March 29 - 91, 1979
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
In the original religions of many indigenous peoples there is
the belief that human beings are thinking, acting and growing
individuals with souls or spirits. This belief also applies to
animals and plants, which live and grow, and may have influence upon
our daily lives. Even the different phenomena in nature, the sun and
moon which run from east to west, sunbeams which give warmth and
growth, water which gives life, rivers which run, snow which comes
and disappears again, volcanoes, dangerous and noisy lightning and
more, were for our ancestors, and many of us still, the natural
world. This world exists as a balance between natural and
supernatural forces. Nature is a real environment that one must
accept. Through experience and through different rituals, indigenous
peoples have learned to live in harmony with nature.
Not until the intervention of European political states was the
harmony between human beings and nature upset. The balance between
the natural and supernatural was, and continues to be, violently
disrupted by those who would seek short term beneFits by extracting
natural resources at rates,and in amounts, greater than can be
naturally replaced. Political states have grown so rapidly in the
past two hundred years that they now consume resources in excess of
their own ability ta produce them. The demand for consumable
resources has increased so rapidly that shortages have multiplied to
the extent that basic natural resources like water, petroleum and
timber are more and more difficult to secure.
The motivating force behind the misuse of natural resources is
growth consumption and the idea of progress. Because native peoples
live in close proximity to the natural world, and the supernatural
world a relative balance is maintained through limited growth and
moderate consumption. Life could not be sustained without limits and
moderation. Even political states recognize that limits must be
placed on the consumption of natural resources when there are
shortages, but instead of cutting back expectations and reducing the
long term use of certain resources, new goals are set for exploration
and exploitation. Such new demands place new pressures on the fragile
ecology and threaten the long-term future of humankind.
The belief that both animals and plants, and even other natural
phenomena are regarded as having souls ar spirits has been referred
to as "nonsense" ,but it was,and is now, one of the most important
features of indigenous beliefs that ensures respect for the
environment. It may be difficult far many agriculturists to
understand that hunting people have an enormous respect for the
living, and For life itself. Many people today may find it ridiculous
that our ancestors treated a slain animal as an honored guest by
giving different gifts, or by saying prayers for it, or by making
their hunting equipment beautiful and attractive. The western
agriculturist especially may tell us that it would be better to make
efficient hunting equipment than to say prayers far the killed
animal. He might be right if it was a question of killing as many
animals as possible in as short a time as possible. These ceremonies
are not a "means of hunting". They give regulation to community life.
It is through the balancing of the natural world with the
supernatural world that the indigenous peoples realize that life
taken must be restored. It is necessary for the members of a hunting
community to kill animals, but it may also be vital for them not to
disturb the balance of the animal life.
In the Northwest part of the United States, throughout the
continent of Australia, in the jungles of the Amazon Basin, and in
the lands of Taiwan and plains of Sudan, indigenous peoples continue
to live in territories occupied once by their ancestors. In these
areas, and many more all over the world, tribal peoples continue to
practice the ways of our ancestors, though often in modern
surroundings. Like our ancestors, we strive to continue the balance
between the natural world and the supernatural world, and for this we
have home lands which are not spoiled or completely disturbed. Tribal
areas, the homelands of indigenous peoples, are now the green areas
of the world, though they were once thought to be areas inhospitable
to human life. Indigenous peoples have by virtue of their way of
life, protected and preserved the lands, water, plants, and animals
that represent the last major undeveloped resources in the world.
Many indigenous people have chosen not to expand their own use of the
resources, while still other indigenous groups have chosen to
cautiously increase the amount of use they will make of minerals,
timber and certain animal life. Using indigenous resources is most
often not a choice made by an indigenous group; but the decision of a
political state, transnational corporation, or other economic
development interest.
Political states like Brazil, South Africa, United States and
Denmark have came into existence and continue to exist because of
their exploitation of indigenous natural resources. The cost of such
exploitation by all political states has been the lives of in excess
of 27,000,000 indigenous peoples world-wide. Since 1850 even greater
damage has been dane to millions of square miles of land and
thousands of miles of rivers and streams. Even the atmosphere around
us has been seriously harmed. But the trend toward increased
exploitation continues, even though the consequences are increasingly
clear. The state of Brazil recently announced that several major
companies would be allowed to "defoliate" the jungles and forests of
the Amazon Basin to extract the "rich timber resources", while
bringing civilization to natives. In the Northwest part of the United
States political officials have decided to divert water from the
Columbia River through a thing called the Second Bacon Siphon so that
what is now a productive dry-farm area will be made into an irrigated
farm area, with little possibility of becoming a productive and
economically feasible sugar beet production source. In South Africa
the indigenous populations have been squeezed into territories much
too small for their health, while vast areas are being developed for
a small minority. In each of the instances I have briefly mentioned,
tribal resources have been the target of exploitation. Indigenous
groups are either ignored, pushed aside, or killed so that their
resources will become available to political states in need of trade
materials or goods for general consumption.
The needs and interests of political states and indigenous
groups are in many ways diametrically opposed to one another.
Political states view uncontrolled growth and progress as the highest
ideals, while indigenous groups regard balance and limited growth as
essential to their livelihood. From all appearances these ideas
cannot be reconciled. We must reconcile the differences or a great
deal of humankind will not survive. There is more to bind humankind
together than should separate. There is a common belief in the human
potential and a common belief that human beings should determine
their own future. There is the common belief that human beings should
be free and that the rights of a people should be respected. We also
have in common the belief that the world should have a new economic
order which ensures the health and future of all peoples. In order to
maximize human commonalities we must be willing to accept compromises
and lower our expectations. We must agree that a new economic order
must provide for all of humanity and not merely for a few. We must
recognize that a new economic order cannot benefit all of human kind
if it permits exploitation of one group by another group. A new
economic order must mean the protection and preservation of nature
and a restored balance. We have several proposals which we believe
will increase the likelihood that a new international order will
benefit humankind. We propose that:
Industrial states must not compete with tribal
groups for their resources. Indigenous resources
must be used only with the clear consent of the
groups affected.
Industrial states must institute new policies which
require a substantial reduction in the use of
timber, petroleum, water and all other raw
materials.
The responsibility for initiating outside contacts
between indigenous peoples and political states must
rest with the tribal peoples themselves.
National governments and international organizations
must recognize and support tribal rights to their
traditional land, cultural autonomy, and full local
sovereignty.
The United Nations should, with the concurrence of
affected indigenous peoples, declare internationally
protected "autonomous indigenous areas" secured by
aboriginal title and established to preserve and
protect the right of self-determination for
indigenous peoples, and protect natural resources
from external exploitation and encroachment without
the consent of local indigenous populations and
international supervision.
The United Nations must establish an international
organization which includes membership from the
political states and indigenous peoples for the
purpose of reviewing grievances and claims
proclaimed by indigenous peoples, and such an
organization must be empowered to address the U.N.
Security Council and U.N. General Assembly to
promote redress of authenticated grievances.
The United Nations must establish an international
organization which includes membership from the
political states and indigenous peoples for the
purpose of offering financial aid and technical
assistance to indigenous peoples when they initiate
a request, and such a financial and technical aid
organization should be empowered to secure such
financial commitments from other world organizations
and political states as may be necessary to the
needs of indigenous peoples.
Change in the lives of indigenous peoples is a condition which
has always existed. Serious changes have given rise to serious
readaptations to the new condition. Indigenous peoples represent many
peoples, many cultures, and also different ways of thinking. But,
they share the same natural world and the same spiritual world. As we
close this presentation we cannot help but make the observation that
industrial political states have risen and seem to be in decline
since their emergence just over two hundred years ago. Tribal
societies have existed for aver 10,000 years and continue to adapt
and adjust. Which is the better way, growth and consumption or
balance?
This paper developed with the cooperation and support of the
following individuals and organizations:
World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP)
National Indian Lutheran Board (NILB)
National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
Satiacum Enterprises
COSAMCO Ltd.
Joe DeLaCruz, President, Quinault Nation
Joan Ortez, Chairwoman, Steilacoom Tribe
Russell Jim, Councilman, Yakima Nation
William Yallup, Councilman, Yakima Nation
George Manuel, WCIP
Marie Maruley, WCIP
Rosalee Tizya, WCIP
Anne Pavel, Skokomish Tribe
Mel Tonasket, Vice-Chairman, Colville Confederated Tribes and Vice-
President, NCAI
Calvin Peters, Chairman, Squaxin Island Tribe
Bernie Whitebear, United Indians of All Tribes Foundation
Writing and Research Staff:
Rudolph C. Ryser, COSAMCO Ltd.
Sue Sawicki, COSAMCO Ltd.
Gary Morishima, Quinault Tribe
Shirley Keith, Muckleshoot Tribe
Randy Scott, Puget Sound Association of Cooperating Tribes (PACT)
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